Highlights

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The largest verdicts in toxic tort cases are the result of a powerful, creative and well-organized plaintiffs’ bar that has become increasingly aggressive in targeting companies of all sizes whose alleged illegal conduct in some cases took place decades ago. Alston & Bird’s toxic tort team has all the necessary tools to ensure that your company does not become the next casualty of the toxic tort wars.

We help our clients anticipate and prepare for a toxic tort litigation risk by actively monitoring and assessing regulatory and legislative activity, media attention, similar litigation and the activities of the plaintiffs’ bar, activist organizations and the public health community. If litigation is filed, we also evaluate whether it is advisable to enlist the help of appropriate public relations experts to counter misinformation, as well as jury research consultants to test important trial themes, to ensure our clients have a realistic assessment of litigation. Using this insight, we evaluate approaches and combine those that will produce the shortest and most cost-effective path to termination of the litigation.

Experience

Our Toxic Tort Experience is National in Scope

We have served as trial counsel, national and regional coordinating counsel, and appellate counsel for Fortune 500 clients coast to coast throughout the United States. We handle the defense of air, ground and drinking water contamination litigation, citizen suits, class actions, government enforcement matters and other complex environmental, toxic exposure and products liability litigation in both state and federal courts.

environmental regulatory lawyers who know how to handle plaintiffs’ lawyers’ misuse of regulatory investigations and cleanup activities as leverage in toxic tort cases; and

science-oriented lawyers with a proven track record of effectively bringing scientific principles to the courtroom and successful Daubert challenges of plaintiffs’ experts.

We Excel at “Bet-the-Company” Litigation

We understand the impact toxic tort litigation, or even the threat of such litigation, can have on clients’ businesses. Our experience with a wide range of corporate clients gives us special insight into how litigation can affect day-to-day and long-term business needs and company exposure. This allows us to conduct litigation with the entire business picture in mind and to ensure that you win “the bet.”

From public relations priorities to shareholder concerns; from the intersection of litigation with regulatory and reporting requirements to sensitive relationships with upstream and downstream business constituents who may also be co-defendants; from the intrusion on executives and other key employees caused by discovery demands to the need for regular updates and realistic assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your case; we keep your business’ priorities in the forefront during both any litigation planning and the conduct of the litigation itself. Most importantly, we do all of this while placing a premium on client service, cost effectiveness, teamwork and diversity.

Our Leadership

Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business notes that according to clients, Alston & Bird is “virtually unbeatable in terms of the depth, range and scope of the skills it offers.” Seven partners on our team have been recognized among the foremost legal practitioners in the field of environmental law by Chambers USA and Who’s Who Legal. In addition, one of our partners is a former chair of the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy & Resources and another is the immediate past director of California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control. Our team includes former senior enforcement officials from the Environmental Enforcement Section and Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

We Have Represented Some of the Biggest Companies in Their Biggest Toxic Tort Cases

Isocyanate Litigation: Served as national litigation and trial counsel for a chemical company, defending a more than 1,600-plaintiff lawsuit in Alabama and a 30,000-plaintiff nationwide putative class action involving a variety of diseases caused by alleged isocyanate exposures.

Dioxin Litigation: Represented a national building products company in mass tort litigation involving more than 1,300 plaintiffs in nine lawsuits alleging personal injuries caused by air and surface water emissions from a former wood treatment site where the principal chemicals of concern were dioxin, arsenic, creosote and chromium.

Asbestos Litigation: Served as the national trial team for a Fortune 50 chemical company in the defense of its asbestos matters in jurisdictions around the country, including many “judicial hellholes;’ Also served as regional counsel and supervising local counsel in the management of dockets comprising hundreds to thousands of cases. We also serve as local counsel in Georgia.

Asbestos Litigation: Served as co-national counsel to a major auto parts supplier of friction products in its asbestos litigation and served on the national trial team, as well as managed local counsel nationwide.

PCE Litigation: Served as national counsel for a global appliance manufacturer in lawsuits involving alleged perchloroethylene (PCE) contamination in soil, sewer system and drinking water supplies.

Fish Kill Litigation: Represented the only industrial discharger on a river in defense of hundreds of property damage claims alleging ammonia, formaldehyde and other chemical contamination in matters including the removal of a putative class action to federal court, motions practice in a related Clean Water Act citizen’s suit brought by a local environmental organization, and successful settlements with the majority of claimants.

Alston & Bird has been singled out by general counsel as one of the most highly regarded law firm brands, ranking No. 15 among 26 firms comprising the BTI Brand Elite 2015: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms. The report indicates that exemplary client service more than any other factor is the main determinant distinguishing the competitive strength of a law firm’s brand.

As is often the case in product liability lawsuits, the recent bellwether trial in the Risperdal litigation involved several disputes about the admissibility of expert testimony. However, one such dispute is notable because the "expert" testimony in question was actually from a fact witness.

This advisory discusses a class settlement worth $93 million that the West Virginia state court approved, addressing alleged contamination and personal injury claims filed on behalf of nearly 25,000 people and more than 8,000 properties in Bibb v. Monsanto Co., Circuit Court of Putnam Cty. W. Va. (2004). This class action is just one of many related civil actions filed against Monsanto in connection with its former chemical plant in Nitro, West Virginia.

February 21, 2013

Advisories

"American Natural Gas: As Production Is Increasing, So Is Litigation," LJN’s Product Liability & Strategy, April 2012.

April 2012

Publications

“Now, Later or Never: Circuits are Split on Daubert Analysis for Class Certification Experts,” DRI's The Whisper, April 1, 2011.